I’m game for a lot of the salads listed, but my favorite go-to is baby spinach, toasted pecans, craisins, red onion and hot bacon vinaigrette dressing.
I eat salad for a meal at least once a day. My salads typically have red leaf lettuce, red bell peppers, zucchini slices, radishes, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower broken or sliced into small pieces, and sometimes purple cabbage if we have it. Some sort of protein and a non-creamy dressing—lately it’s been Newman’s Own light sesame ginger.
I do love my salads.
Salad-as-a-meal?
-Lettuce - Boston if it’s not overly expensive, else leaf lettuce or romaine. Always whole, cleaned and cut myself. Never a bag.
-Tomatoes, cukes, bell peppers. At least as much of these as lettuce
-Hard-boiled egg, cut in quarters
-Ham and Turkey or Chicken
-At least two types of cheese, typically swiss & cheddar, or gouda, or jack of some sort
-Avocado, if I have it
-Pickled beets that my Mom makes. These are essential; without them, the salad seems dull
-Homemade vinegarette
Side salad?
Lettuce and the veggies mentioned above, homemade vinegarette
OR
Cukes and bell peppers, tossed in rice wine vinegar and oil, maybe some sesame oil. Maybe some tomatoes instead of bell peppers. Maybe some red onions in addition or instead of tomatoes/bell peppers.
OR (if it’s august)
a really good tomato cut up with a bit of sherry vinegar and olive oil, with a sprinkling of fresh basil.
OR (if it’s winter)
Fennel sliced thin, oranges or tangerine, oil & vinegar
Now I want a salad.
I like a spinach base, or spinach with other stuff. Then some veggies like red bell peppers and such. No cheese 'cause I’m being good. Balsamic vinaigrette. Only if I’m cooking for Himself and he doesn’t like not-creamy dressings, and then I make that bleu cheese dressing from America’s Test Kitchen Best Light Recipes (which I highly recommend.)
I like lots of different salads, but my favorite basic salad is mache, English cucumber, tomato, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic, salt, and pepper.
If it’s a salad bar, it’s spinach as a base, plus a little of everything except iceberg lettuce (which isn’t food; it’s textured water).
If I’m making it myself, then spinach or possibly real lettuce, plus whatever other veggies I happen to have on hand.
Unless it’s Easter, in which case I make my grandma’s dandelion salad. Dandelion greens, hard-boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, chopped onions, and a dressing of bacon, cider vinegar, and sugar. I think that salad just might be my favorite food, period-- It’s a shame you can only make it once a year (after early spring, the leaves get bitter).
Spinach, feta, dried cranberries, red onion, avocado, jalapeno almonds, and shrimp, w/a lowfat vinagrette.
Salad I make everyday for GF’s lunch:
Half an English cucumber, sliced into ~1/6 in slices, then quartered;
about 15 kalamata or nicoise olives, pitted and sliced;
1/2 of a tomato, de-seeded, rough chopped;
4 artichoke hearts, thin sliced;
1/2 of a seeded jalapeno pepper, fine diced;
a few slices of red onion, finer diced;
a few slices of mozzarella, chopped;
occasionally some baby spinach leaves.
Dressing is ~2/3, 1/3 EVOO/Lemon juice, with a bit of stuff from the Penzey’s spice rack thrown in. She seems to like it.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but one of the tastiest salads I’ve ever had is the 1/4 wedge of iceberg, topped with bacon blue cheese dressing; your basic steakhouse special. In school, I lived on romaine hearts with canned black olives and canned tuna tossed with some miracle whip or mayo and laden with fresh ground black pepper.
Really, I’ll try anything that looks like the cook gave a $&** about making.
Spring Greens and/or spinach
Some sort of bean, e.g., Chick peas, edamame, or kidney beans
Some sort of grain, e.g., quinoa or couscous
Some sort of nut, usu. pumpkin seeds, sometimes almonds
julienned carrots
dried cranberries (craisins)
Briana’s Ginger Mandarin dressing
Arugula, blue cheese or sharp chedder crumbles (depends on my mood and what I have on hand), cucumber slices, sometimes I’ll add bacon bits. Rarely ever I’ll dice up some tomatoes and toss them in there.
On occasion I’ll add garlic and herb crutons, if I I want a better crunch.
Jesus, everyone else has such interesting salads. Mine’s just tomato, cucumber and lettuce 
But I’m British and mostly live off bread, pastry and cream so…yeah. bookmarks page
Mostly iceberg lettuce, but with some spinach or radicchio, then a sprinkling of shredded carrots, some diced red or green pepper, bacon bits, and rice noodles on top. Maybe some sesame seeds and croutons, too, and even some peanuts, if I’ve got 'em. For dressing, I like either chunky blue cheese, hot bacon, dark French or raspberry vinaigrette.
OK, now I’m hungry.
Romaine or butter leaves, black olives, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, feta cheese, walnuts, tomatoes.
I prefer spinach to lettuce as my base. Then lots of toppings - I like a salad with some heft to it. Bacon bits, beets, baby corn, black olives, chunks of ham and turkey, chunks of cheddar and feta cheese, egg slices, sunflower seeds, shredded carrots, radishes, sweet pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, lots of onions, chickpeas, kidney beans, raw mushrooms, peas, avocado, artichokes, roasted garlic.
No tomatoes. Don’t like 'em.
No hot peppers. Hot doesn’t belong in a salad.
No croutons. Too crunchy and it throws off the texture.
I like green goddess dressing but that’s almost impossible to find. So caesar or ranch is usually what I go with - not too heavy because my salads are heavy enough on their own.
im pretty simple.
-lettuce
-plenty of tomato
-ranch dressing
-bit of black pepper.
for company …
organic mixed spring baby greens
tomatoes
black olives
red onion
grated raw califlower
grated raw red beets
celery
cukes
feta or shredded parmesan
garlic
salt
olive oil
vinegar
for myself …
organic spring baby greens
toms
feta or parmesan
oil vinegar salt
i have no use for salad dressings
I had one of the best salads I have ever eaten Monday night at SW Steakhouse at Wynn Las Vegas. Baby iceberg wedge with a buttermilk dressing, heavy with the bleu cheese (Maytag?), accompanied by a lot of different heirloom tomatoes (grape, cherry, wedges of Black Krim, etc.) and a slab of house-made bacon that had to be 4" X 2" X .5" and charred on the grill. Absolute heaven!
I’m really digging the yellow peppers and yellow baby/grape tomatoes along with butter or boston head. You have to get a reaaaally thin buttermilk ranch going on or a very sweet vinaigrette - if it’s too sour or acidic, it overpowers the delicate leaves. And protein or not, depending.
Cucumbers - always seeded. Large croutons, but only fresh - so that means rarely in practice ;). Pickled beets - I’m finally gonna take the plunge and pickle them myself this summer.
As much as I love cheese, I will avoid it if served a salad with cheese. Messes with my senses.
I made a very simple (and new) dinner salad last week:
-quickly cooked flank steak
-sliced garlic cloves, which sat in the fresh dressing bottle I made that morning
-dressing was balsamic vinegar, a little sugar, penzey’s country french vinagrette, onion flakes, dried tarragon
-roasted asparagus with tons of kosher salt
-grape tomatoes
That was amazing.
And I do adore a good wedge salad, with ample chives.
This is really making me hungry for salads of all sorts! My sister does a nice summer chopped salad–red cabbage, cucumber, peppers, carrots, cauliflower, whatever else strikes her fancy. Chops it all up and dresses it with ginger sesame dressing or something similar. I like it with a blush basalmic I keep on hand. I don’t know, maybe it’s not a salad? But it’s veggie and tasty and I LOVE it.
I also like the layered salads like my mom always made for reunions and such. My favorite is cornbread salad, basically layers of cornbread crumbles, beans, green onions, peppers, corn, bacon, ranch dressing. MAN! is it good and filling!
Romaine lettuce, kidney beans, jalapeno, green and red bell peppers, corn, broccoli, bean spouts. Ranch, honey-mustard or sesame dressing.